A feature-based CAD representation enabling case-based planning across multiple manufacturing applications

Human programmers integrate knowledge about the designed part when programming a robot or a vision system. A human is required to reason about the relationship between the designed part geometry and the particular application requirements. The OOPAC representation provides the ability to plan different applications using the same part design. The representation provides an extendibility not found in current feature-based planning system where macros incorporate the definition of feature geometry and application-specific information. The OOPAC representation enables the automated OOPAC planning system to reason about relationships between multiple constraints imposed by process parameters, workspace environment, part design, and available tools, sensors, and machines (robots). This paper primarily focused on the relationship between application plans and part design. The OOPAC KB representation facilitates the capability of the OOPAC planning system to reason about constraints imposed on the application specification by various levels of abstraction in the feature geometry (part, feature, feature face, edge, vertex)